Top 10 Tuesdays-Things I Love That Are Welsh

As always, go over to Kate's and Tiff's blogs to see their Top 10's (or Top 5) for the week and if you want to join in, just let Kate know.

Yea! Another easy topic! I wasn't sure what to do about the logo and title since we are switching to a Top 5 list for only a couple of months, but I decided just to go with it. This is a topic that I can easily do a Top 10 on, but alas, I'll stick to the rules.

#1: TOM ELLIS
Surely Kate knew that this would be my number one. I've always had a thing for British actors and, for quite a few years, Tom has been on the very top of my list, mainly due to Miranda (one of the best TV shows EVER), but for numerous other shows as well (Monday Monday, The Gates, Bedlam, Sugartown, The Fades, and about a half dozen others). . We're lucky enough to have him in the states now in Lucifer (before that Hitch and he was also the first Robin Hood on Once Upon A Time), but honestly, I miss Gary and Miranda, so how about a fan video from my favorite show:
And, since I'm at hit, for my American brethren who have not yet watched Lucifer, you ought to check it out because it's a pretty good show (WAY better than Hitch):


#2: DAWN FRENCH
One of the first British shows I ever got attached to was The Vicar of Dibley, long before another one of my great British actors came on board (Richard Armitage...most Americans will know him as Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit movies). Dawn was exceptionally funny, but most of all, she was very easy to relate to, and the more I went through the rest of her film catalog, the more I loved her. To this day, when I've had a bad time of it, I always pull out the Dibley disc with The Handsome Stranger and A Vicar In White to make myself feel better. There are rumors that a new Vicar special might be in the works, and I would just LOVE to see Dawn and Richard on screen together again (although it's doubtful because he's a big movie star now). A girl can dream, right?

Most Americans will know Dawn from here:


#3: GAVIN AND STACEY
Long before James Corden was well known by America, he was on a fantastic little show called Gavin And Stacey. Nessa (played by Ruth Jones...which would have had a number of her own if this was a Top 10 list) is what made the show for me and, to this day, I still try to find excuses to use the phrase, "where to...", "what's occurin'" and, who could ever forget "ooo, ooo". It took me FOREVER to find a clip of it (guess I should have just put Nessa's best moments in the search box instead of searching for the exact phrase...could have saved me some time). Rather than an actual show clip, I thought this comedy sketch of Ruth and James was pretty dad-gum funny and incorporated everything I was looking for:

But now I'm feeling guilty for not showing a show clip, so here ya go:


#4: STELLA
Speaking of Ruth Jones, another favorite show of mine is Stella. It's such a shame we don't have access to these shows here, so many people are missing out on good TV. Even though I don't have kids, I still find myself relating to Stella because no matter what she does, she always gets the short end of the stick...story of my life.


#5: RAREBIT
I'm not a world traveler per se in that I've never actually been to another continent, but I do go to Disney World practically every year and I've traveled and eaten my way around the world at Epcot (so that's got to count for something, right?). During the fall, Epcot has an annual Food & Wine Festival and, in addition to their UK Pavilion which has a lot of British cuisine in its own right, there are individual booths for various other countries. They've never actually had a Wales booth (although they have an Irish and Scottish), but once upon a time they had a general UK booth and that's where I got my first taste of rarebit. I wasn't going to touch it with a 10 foot pole if I was going by its name alone, but once I found out it was basically just a cheddar cheese sauce on toasted bread with a bit of mustard and worcestershire, I was totally down because cheese is my greatest weakness! It was absolutely amazing and a new favorite was born! Unfortunately, they never had it again, but you can sometimes find it at the Rose and Crown Pub in the UK Pavilion. I found numerous recipes online, but this looks to be the closest to what I had in Epcot all those years ago:

And for anyone interested, here is the recipe. Some people just consider cheese toast to be rarebit, which is a bit ironic for me because I've been eating that since I was a wee one. I now call it rarebit instead of cheese toast and people look at me like I'm nuts...I just like to think that I'm more sophisticated and worldly than they are!